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Is the All Line Rover worth it? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago by DrCake@lemmy.world to c/rail

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I live in the Uk and fancied a holiday just going around Great Britain for a week by train and saw this was an option.

Just wondering if anyone has used it and was it worth the price vs booking each trip in advance.

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[–] HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I bought a similar pass for foreign tourists back in 2019, but it was much cheaper (USD 333 ~ GBP 250 for 8 days).

I'm not sure if I broke even on it versus individual tickets, but the appeal for me was flexibility. Just stumble into the next outbound train in the direction I was going.

You might check if there are a cheaper version with narrower coverage if it suits your needs; I think it was significantly cheaper to leave Scotland and Wales off the tourist versuon.

[–] DrCake@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Thanks for the reply. How did you find getting on trains without a seat reservation? Did you have trains you couldn’t get on because they were full or did you pay the extra for a seat?

[–] GreatAlbatross 2 points 2 months ago

If you travel outside of rush hours, you'll normally be fine for seats.

Normally seat reservations come free with booking a ticket ahead of time (with the trade-off that the ticket is often less flexible).

Look into how the ALR works with sleeper trains, as that could save you a packet on hotels (plus it means that you can avoid going along the same section twice while conscious)

Personally...I'd say that I could spend the £400 better on individual tickets, especially if booked ahead. But I probably wouldn't want to spend 7 days solidly on the trains, whereas you might!

Railforums are a great resource on this, this thread may be of interest: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/gb-rail-rover-tips-advice-all-line-rover-or-regional-rovers.236862/

[–] HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 months ago

I had no trouble because I was traveling at Random Tourist Hours, likely missing peak times.

I paid £20 extra for an a-la-carte first class upgrade on one trip (Swindon-Plymouth) because it was suggested by the family members I was visiting, and in retrospect, I'd rather have the money.